Yemen's Houthis: From Ragtag Militia To Geopolitical Heavyweight

There's been a real transformation of the Houthis from where they were. This is now a force that has, drone and ballistic missile capabilities that allow it to play a global role. :: Angus McDowell, Correspondent It's able to more or less shut off Saudi oil exports to close off the Red Sea, which is one of the world's most important trade waterways. And they're using this far more effective, technology in ways that it would have been hard to imagine them doing a decade ago. :: How are the Houthis flexing their muscle? What happened last week is that the Houthis made one really sudden advance on the Red Sea coast. It also allowed them to capture the last stretch of territory, around the Bab el-Mandeb straight. They can fire, really very easily, with a whole range of different types of munitions, at passing shipping. And that really has given them a big strategic win. :: How did Iran help transform the Houthi fighters? The relationship between Iran and the Houthis developed fairly gradually at first, but I think that they're now working fairly closely. For a long time the Houthis were not regarded as being in the same category as Iran's other major regional allies, groups like the, Lebanon's Hezbollah and some of the Iraqi militias. What we see now is a Houthi force that is very much influenced by Iran and also prepared to work very closely with Iran in terms of the larger strategic picture in the Middle East. :: How do Houthi gains bolster Iran? So the wider context for all this is the U.S. war with Iran. And Iran had already, managed to largely block off the Strait of Hormuz, which is the world's most important waterway for energy. But an awful lot of particularly Saudi Arabian oil was still getting out by pipeline across to its Red Sea ports and from there, down the Red Sea, through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and to Asian markets. Now the Houthi actions, really are helping the Iranians to close off that route for Gulf energy, and by doing so that all of a sudden putting a huge amount more pressure on global energy markets. And that is really helpful to Iran, in terms of its overall efforts to see out the American campaign and to survive this war.